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Mormon studies events at UVSC

This week the Religious Studies and Mormon Studies programs will be hosting their two annual events, the Eugene England Memorial Lecture and the Annual Mormon Studies Conference.

On Wednesday evening at 7pm in CS 404 (the computer science building), the Eugene England Memorial Lecture will be presesnted by David Paulsen, Professor of Philosophy at BYU. His lecture is entitled, "Are Mormons Christian? Reassessing Joseph Smith's Theology in his Bicentennial."

On Thursday and Friday, the 6th Annual Mormon Studies Conference will host several speakers from across the nation addressing "Mormonism and the Christian Tradition." A full schedules of those days' events can be found here.

The Moderator has obviously deleted my Events Post about this as well as an article about it. Not sure what he's thinking:

Free Speech Forum at BYU
w/ a free screening of the documentary, THIS DIVIDED STATE
Emphasis on the Recent BYUSA Controversy
Hosted by The Political Science Club
Thursday, April 6th, 6:30pm, JFSB Building, Room B037
Bring your Protest Caps.

I just got a phone call telling me that the BYU Administration is trying VERY HARD to cancel tonight's Free Speech Forum. They requested that I, last minute, edit the film to make it more "BYU Worthy". I flatly refused, not just because I don't have the time to do that, but because I don't believe in censoring my work. So now they're talking about pulling the plug on the whole thing. All at the last minute.

So, hopefully, we pull through and we can have the screening and forum. BYU desperately needs it.

So, they had an adminstrator guarding the door to the room where we were going to screen THIS DIVIDED STATE so I ran around in the rain outside telling everyone who was walking into the building to go to Room 132 instead of 032. We snuck about 35 people in and started the movie.

The Deseret News and The Daily Herald showed up with photographers and were completely blown away with the whole event. Then, the BYU Admin guy walked in (he just found out) and then he left very quickly. I was sure it was to get security and then escort me off campus and cancel the event. But he never came back.

We watched the whole film and had a short discussion afterwards about the film and free speech, etc.

THIS DIVIDED STATE was finally screened at BYU! Despite it being cancelled by the Administration...

Is it really that unreasonable for BYU to ask that you edit your movie to meet the religious standards of the privately-owned university hosting the event? Censorship aside, I would imagine people could get the main ideas of your film without the parts that show your own production team flipping off Sean Hannity while trying to debate him.

I daresay that you wouldn't have had to deal with the "douchery" of the administration if the individuals organizing the event had gone through the appropriate channels and gotten the proper approvals in the first place.

This had be planned for A WEEK! They cancelled it HOURS before it was supposed to start requesting that I "edit out 4-5 scenes". I wasn't going to do that at the last minute and I also don't believe in censorship. Plus 120+ people had already planned to show up.

Also the Deseret News told me that in their interview with some Admin guy named Magleby, he said, "This Divided State will never be shown here on BYU campus. Ever."

So we did it anyways. And about 35 Cougars showed up and loved it. Look for the articles in tomorrow's papers which may or may not hate me.

In the Daily Herald article the kid who organized it admits he didn't try to get approval for the event. Although it had been planned for a week, the BYU spokeswoman Carrie Jenkins said they just found out about it on Tuesday night.

You say you don't believe in censorship, but you moderate the comments on your blog (and I agree with your reasons for doing so). I just wish you would extend BYU the same privileges you exercise yourself.

I was invited by the students to screen my movie. They had their TA and their professor OK the event. The room was reserved and everything advertised. What happened was that the PROFESSOR was supposed to fill out some paper work or something and didn't turn that it to the higher ups. That professor is currently on a business tip in New York and couldn't be reached by the administration to clarify.

Also, last weeks protest was planned 4 HOURS before the event. The announced it, said "we're doing this" and then the protest was held. Without incident I might add.

So, today, the same thing. 4 hours before, but they pull the plug instead of allow it. Flyers for today's screening had been ALL OVER campus for a week now. I'd argue that because it's Accreditation Week at BYU that they didn't want protestors from last week coming and saying "Bad BYU Things" to the press. They didn't want another story about protests regarding free speech on BYU. But, it doesn't matter cuz there will be 2 articles tomorrow.

The protesters didn't try to get permission until 4 hours before because they assumed they would be denied permission. But when they actually went through the proper channels, not only did the administration approve, but they cooperated by fast-tracking the approval process.

Even though the organizers of your event didn't go through the proper channels, it sounds like the administration wanted to work with you anyways, but you were the one being inflexible. And although you can see a difference between censoring what is offensive to you on your blog and BYU censoring what is contrary to its clearly-stated ideals, I cannot.

If BYU is going to ask him to edit his film to make it "BYU worthy," then they'd better apply the same standards of censorship to every other book, film, or painting exhibited on campus. I don't know about you guys, but I remember seeing a number of paintings of naked women in my Humanities class. We should probably stop studying those. Oh, and The Iliad, The Aeneid, The Metamorphoses, and Histories were full of permiscuous sex and graphic violence. You know what? Dante's Divine Comedy presents a view of the afterlife totally incompatible with LDS theology. The Catcher in the Rye, On The Road, The Great Gatsby!? I can't believe BYU would have us read books that include cursing and immoral behavior. Maybe we should stop reading these books, or at least censor them. In the HFAC, I think I've seen student artwork of models who were wearing two-piece swimming suits. Stupid, liberal fine arts department!

Basically, I think if we're letting a couple of bad words or depictions that don't totally line up with LDS practice prevent us from really appreciating art, then there's something wrong. If we insist on censoring, changing, or rejecting art on such a basis, then we're really missing out on what some amazing artists, writers, and filmmakers have to offer.

In any university, be it private, Church-affiliated, or whatever, there should be enough academic integrity to allow such works of art to be exhibited free of censorship.

I was really glad I was able to see it. There were a few swear words, but nothing worse than what I heard on the basketball courts in the MTC. I am planning on buying it, and showing it to all my children to convince them to stay away from utah, or at least get out as soon as possible.

I'm loving the discussion on this blog, because in a lot of ways it mirrors the stuff that happened last year at UVSC during The Moore War. And for BYU it couldn't come at a better time because next week the folks from the Northwest Commission are heading to town. For those of you unfamiliar with the process the Northwest Commission is the body that determies if a school keeps their accreditation status. They usually visit a campus for a week talking to students, faculty and administration about how the school works. For private institutions like BYU they have a different standard than for state schools; instead of judging them versus similar schools they are more interested in the school's mission and how they are accomplishing that mission. BYU is great at doing what they do...so I don't see any huge problems. That being said the Northwest Commision is very concerned with matters involving free speech and academic freedom. If I was a BYU student (and I thank Allah everyday that I got out when I did) and I was concerned with these types of issues I would find a member of the accreditation team and let them know what is going on (chances are they already know). Don't worry...BYU will sail through accreditation and your precious diploma will still be worth something, but Samuelson and others will hear an earfull about academic freedom and things might change. Should BYU be like everywhere else? Gosh...I would say heck no! But should it get a healthy dose of reality every now and then...hell ya!

BTW. UVSC had their accreditation visit last year (they only happen every 10) and did surprisingly well.

Mason, what's up dude? On vacation? What happened to that article I submitted on the cancelled FREE SPEECH PANEL at BYU? I spent probably 15-20 minutes putting together the links and pictures. Why won't it be published?

the conference went great. the fire alarm was even well planned... ron huggins is a great guy, but dammn... his talk was boring. overall there were really great speakers, with even better discussions in between.

Do you think that a BYU prof has ever shown a PG-13 movie, unedited, in a class? Sounds likely to me. This Divided State might be non-rated but it would probably receive a PG-13 rating. These students are grown adults, and due to the high academic standards needed to get in I would assume that they are a pretty smart bunch. Let them make their own minds up.

You obviously have a very high opinion of Greenstreet's film, but I think many people would not put it in the same league as The Illiad. In my mind there is a world of difference between Green Party members screaming that Michael Moore is "chicken sh*t" at the top of their lungs and the incest in Kafka's Metamorphasis.

Vegor, I thought the BYU Accreditation happened THIS week. That's what I heard, anyways. And that's the reason BYU didn't want anymore protests n' stuff going on this week because the Northwest people were here. If is IS next week, that'll be sweet because the Daily Universe is running an (albeit slanted) article on Monday.

"Grown adults" does not mean that they have to put up with crap in what they watch. You're confusing 'opposing view points' with smut. I'm glad the Supreme Court isn't as confused about the first amendment as you are.

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